The cabinet committee will submit its recommendations before the federal cabinet regarding the extent and nature of the annual audit of regulatory authorities to be conducted by the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP).
According to sources, regulatory authorities functioning under the cabinet division and the office of the AGP are not on one page regarding the extent and nature of the annual audit to be conducted by the AGP.
“The cabinet committee is likely to submit its recommendations regarding the audit of regulatory authorities by the AGP,” said sources.
The regulatory authorities, in view of the constitutional stipulations and their particular enactments, believe that the AGP can conduct audits of their accounts only and not of their regulatory functions or their performance. However, the AGP insists on its broader role in the scheme of audit.
According to sources the Ministry of Law and Justice in its opinion regarding scope of the audit by AGP with regard to regulatory authorities already concluded that “the AGP can only conduct audit of accounts and also determine the nature of extent of such audit of accounts”.
However, later the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) decided that the jurisdiction of the AGP and consequential oversight jurisdiction of the parliament cannot be restricted to accounts only by excluding the performance of the authorities or bodies established by or under the control of the federal government particularly when they impact public interest and involve public finances.
The Attorney General for Pakistan (AGFP) while giving opinion on the issue had already opined that “the audit of (i) economy of administrative activities; (ii) efficiency of utilisation of human, financial and other resources; and (iii) effectiveness of performance was beyond the scope of the AGP.
The AGP, while disagreeing with the said advice, approached the Cabinet Division and suggested to take up the matter with AGFP for reconsideration. But, the AGP instead of approaching AGFP directly, had again referred the matter to the Cabinet Division with certain observations.
